Russianguy
12/07/2003, 05h35
After a few weeks driving with my car clunking in the back I decided to see what's up. I replaced my rear top shock mounts with E46 M3 ones. Things improved slightly but there was still annoying clunking when going over the bumps.
At first I wasn't sure what was wrong. I lifted up the car 2-3 times trying to see what the problem was, but to no avail. After turning to some BMW forums I realized my RTABs could have been shot. So I got new bushings at the dealer ($29 each) and decided to put them in. Taking off the old bushings was not that hard... One side just fell out - that's how bad it was, and the other one I had to drill and cut out.
Putting in the new ones was sort of a pain, but after a couple of hours trying I found the method.
1 - Put the bushing in the freezer for about 5 hours.... this will make the rubber contract a bit.
2 - put grease on the bushing, slide it in a bit and hit it with a hammer a few times to guide it in a bit. This is what BMW mechanics do.
3 - Take a long bolt that can go through the bushing and stick out from the control arm on the other side. Put 1" in diameter washers on each side and then tighten everything up. The washers will be slightly larger than the bushing and the trailing arm and if you tighten everything up the bushing will be guided into the trailing arm with ease.
That's all it takes. After this procedure the back end is much more tight. Car drives like new! :bigup:
This procedure is applicable to E36 and E46 cars since they have the same RTABs.
At first I wasn't sure what was wrong. I lifted up the car 2-3 times trying to see what the problem was, but to no avail. After turning to some BMW forums I realized my RTABs could have been shot. So I got new bushings at the dealer ($29 each) and decided to put them in. Taking off the old bushings was not that hard... One side just fell out - that's how bad it was, and the other one I had to drill and cut out.
Putting in the new ones was sort of a pain, but after a couple of hours trying I found the method.
1 - Put the bushing in the freezer for about 5 hours.... this will make the rubber contract a bit.
2 - put grease on the bushing, slide it in a bit and hit it with a hammer a few times to guide it in a bit. This is what BMW mechanics do.
3 - Take a long bolt that can go through the bushing and stick out from the control arm on the other side. Put 1" in diameter washers on each side and then tighten everything up. The washers will be slightly larger than the bushing and the trailing arm and if you tighten everything up the bushing will be guided into the trailing arm with ease.
That's all it takes. After this procedure the back end is much more tight. Car drives like new! :bigup:
This procedure is applicable to E36 and E46 cars since they have the same RTABs.